FEBRUARY

NATIONWIDE

Various events via Café Scientifique
Date: Ongoing
Venue: Various, from The Orkney Islands to Falmouth
Audience: Adults
Cost: Mostly free
Café Scientifique is a network of informal meetings groups up and down the UK that are run for the discussion of topical scientific issues. They offer a unique opportunity for the scientific community and those interested in science to engage with one another in a relaxed atmosphere and are designed to be more accessible than a public lecture. Meetings take place in bars and cafes, although other venues, such as theatres, are also used.
Information on Café Scientifique across the UK

ABERDEEN

Darwin 200 Event
Date: 11 February, 7pm
Venue: Waterstones (Union Bridge branch), Union Street, Aberdeen
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. On the eve of Darwin’s 200th birthday, join Kelley Swain, author of Darwin’s Microscope for an eclectic mix of science and poetry. Kelley will be signing copies of her book.
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ABERYSTWYTH

Aspects of Armageddon - Volcanic Eruptions and the End of the World?
Date: 23 February, 7.30pm
Venue: Theatre Bar, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Aberystwyth
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. Dr John Grattan will be the guest speaker at this event.
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BANGOR

Food Miles and Rural Livelihoods
Date: 4 February, 7.30pm
Venue: Papillon Café, Bangor
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. Dr Paul Cross from Bangor University will be talking about the ethics and efficiencies of buying local or global.
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CUMBRIA

The Forensic DNA Database and Ethical Issues
Date: 17 February, 7.15pm
Venue: The Old Cooperage Bar, Jennings Brewery, Castlegate, Cockermouth
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Fingerprinting and DNA profiling are increasingly valuable tools in the fight against crime. However, in the UK there is a debate about whether current police powers to take and use bio-information, powers that can affect the liberty and privacy of innocent people, are justified.
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DUNDEE

How Bacteria Make a Coat to Baffle our Immune System
Date: 24 February, 7pm
Venue: Tower Lecture Theatre, University of Dundee, Dundee
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
Presented by Professor Jim Naismith of St Andrews University. Bacteria have been fighting each other and living off other organisms since life began. Like all living things, bacteria use proteins to carry out tasks and they have evolved some fascinating systems, including the ability to coat themselves with sugar. This lecture will discuss the structures of these proteins and how scientists can target the proteins in order to design new antibiotics.
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EAST SUSSEX

The World of Science
Date: 21-28 February
Venue: Around Brighton
Audience: All ages
Cost: Many events are free
Loads of events for young and old alike in this year’s science festival.
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The Frog Who Croaked Blue - Synesthesia and the Mixing of the Senses
Date: 24 February, 7.30pm
Venue: Hanover Community centre, Southover Street, Brighton
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
As little Edgar Curtis lay on his porch, he remarked to his mother how the noise of the rifle range was black, the chirp of the cricket was red, and the croak of the frog was bluish. Edgar, like many other people, has synesthesia - a fascinating condition in which music can have colour, words can have taste, and time and numbers float through space. Everyone will be acquainted with people who have synesthesia but you may not yet know who they are because, until very recently, synesthesia was largely hidden and unknown. Now science is uncovering its secrets and the findings are leading to a radical rethink about how our senses are organised.
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EDINBURGH

Climate Change, Human Behaviour and the Impacts
Date: 4 February, 2pm
Venue: Castle Room, New Craig, Craighouse Campus, Napier University
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
This lecture is given by Professor Boulton, Vice-Principal of Edinburgh University.
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GLOUCESTERSHIRE

Eye for Colour
Date: Now until 21 March
Venue: Explore-At-Bristol, Harbourside, Bristol, BS1
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free with ticket to Explore (which is £5.50) and free for the under threes
Ever wondered how you’d feel if sausages were purple, or what colour paint used to be made from ground-up Egyptian mummies? Well come and let Explore-At-Bristol’s eye-opening interactive exhibition lead you through the dazzling world of colour.
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HERTFORDSHIRE

DNA and Genealogy
Date: 5 February, 7.15pm
Venue: The Ferguson Building Lecture Theatre at Bishop's Stortford College
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Café Scientifique is an informal forum for the discussion of topical scientific issues. Bryn Carr will be the guest speaker at this event.
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LONDON

What’s Going on Underground? Tunnelling into the Future
Date: 18 February, 6.30pm
Venue: Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AG
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
In Shanghai, 20 kilometres of tunnel are to be built every year for the next 20 years. In Rome a new metro line beneath the Colosseum is about to be constructed. In London the exciting Crossrail project has got the green light. Urban congestion is a serious problem in many cities, so the creation of underground space and in particular the development of underground transport is environmentally essential. How can tunnels be built in ground sometimes as soft as toothpaste? What can go wrong? Will buildings above be affected by subsidence? What else is underground already that might get in the way? Geotechnical engineering, the application of the science of soil mechanics and engineering geology, plays a key role in answering these questions.
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Better than a Thousand Words
Date: 24 February, 5.30pm
Venue: Royal Society, 6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
We look at the role of pictures and images in the development of science. From the first graphs and illustrated books to Molscript, the influence of the first pictures of spiral galaxies on Van Gogh's 'Starry Night', to the artistic resonances of the Hubble Space Telescope's images, the mushroom cloud of the atomic bomb, and the intricacy of fractals, we will see how pictures have influenced science and spearheaded its communication to the public today.
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Japan Car - Designs for the Crowded Globe
Date: Now until April
Venue: The Science Museum, South Kensington, London
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
The exhibition shows how Japanese car design reflects the 'soil and the spirit of Japan', shown through concept cars and special home market models. Japan Car explores three themes while examining the future of mobility in cities. Japan, being both highly innovative and densely populated, can be seen as the driving force behind transport solutions for 21st-century cities.
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Dan Dare and the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain
Date: Now until October
Venue: The Science Museum, South Kensington, London
Audience: All ages
Cost: Free
Dan Dare’s rocket fleet roars high over Venus to trounce his arch foe - the power-mad Mekon. Meanwhile, back on Earth, another extraordinary future is unfolding, one which laid the foundation for Britain’s hi-tech consumer society. After 1945, though war-weary and broke, Britain found huge pride in wartime advances such as radar, penicillin and the jet engine. Discoveries like these were now tipped to kick-start world-beating industries, bring prosperity and bankroll the emerging welfare state. In an age before globalisation, products from rockets to radios sprang from local roots. Together they reveal a fascinating ‘lost world’ of British design and invention; a glimpse of a time when the TV in the corner was a Murphy, not a Sony. This exciting new temporary exhibition explores the role played by technology in creating post-war Britain.
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WILTSHIRE

On Love - An Evolutionary Perspective
Date: 10 February, 7.30pm
Venue: Salisbury Arts Centre, Bedwin Street, Salisbury
Audience: Adults
Cost: Free
Professor Tim Birkhead is the guest speaker on this special Valentine’s Day event.
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